A big part of the appeal of living in Costa Rica was that we get to live in a lush, tropical environment. Our house is outside of the town proper, so we have even more opportunities to commune with nature. For the most part it’s great, with a huge variety of plants and animals that make life very interesting.
In fact, I’m thinking that one day I might dedicate a whole post to the “critters I found in my house or yard”, or something like that.
However, yesterday we were reminded that living in or near a real jungle can have some real consequences. We found out that last year, our next door neighbours lost one of their young kittens to a big Boa Constrictor!!!
It was playing in the coffee plants just on the other side of the fence to both of our properties early one morning (before sunrise) while our neighbours were having coffee on the veranda. They told me that the kitty was only 4-5 months old and they could hear it’s screams but could do nothing to help it. Yikes…
I have been over that fence myself a few times at night, wearing nothing but my flip-flops, following a trail of pesky leaf-cutter ants to their hidey-hole so I could get rid of them at the source. My neighbour thinks that because the kitty was a gringo, it lacked the survival instinct of the Tico cats, and I’m starting to think my instincts are no better.
They got 2 friends to capture the snake and take it away and let it go, so at least it didn’t have to die as well. As my neighbour said, the snake was doing what snakes do and the kitten was doing what kittens do.
Here’s the pics. (They’re small, but you might be able to click to enlarge:)
Prey
Predator
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